Alaska: Mechanic's Lien Waiver Form and Advance-Waiver Rules
The short answer
Alaska lets a claimant waive lien and stop-lending-notice rights by a signed writing, and that waiver needs no payment or other consideration to be binding — but it can only reach work already done. A waiver cannot cover labor, materials, services, or equipment furnished after the date it is signed, so an advance waiver of future work is ineffective. A laborer who personally worked as an employee cannot waive their lien at all; any waiver purporting to do so is void. Alaska prescribes no statutory waiver form.
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This is the general rule in Alaska. Ezel applies current Alaska law to your specific facts and answers with citations to the statutes.
| Governing law and project scope | Alaska Statutes AS 34.35.050-34.35.120 (Mechanics and Materialmen), with waiver governed by AS 34.35.117. Liens on private real property for laborers, contractors, subcontractors, materialmen, and design professionals; public-works claims run against a Little Miller Act bond, not a lien. No separate statutory waiver form. |
|---|---|
| Advance or prospective waiver | Partly barred. A signed written waiver is 'valid and binding' and 'requires no consideration,' but it 'may not relate to labor, materials, services, or equipment furnished after the date the waiver is signed' (§ 34.35.117(a)) — so a claimant cannot prospectively waive future work. An 'individual' laborer-employee (§ 34.35.120(10)) cannot waive at all; such a waiver is void (§ 34.35.117(b)). |
| Statutory form requirement | None. Section 34.35.117 requires only a signed writing and prescribes no conditional/unconditional or progress/final form, no warning language, and no fields. A privately drafted waiver that meets the writing-and-signature rule is effective. |
| Waiver types and payment stage | No statutory conditional/unconditional or progress/final forms. By operation of § 34.35.117(a) every waiver acts as a through-signing-date partial waiver: it reaches work done up to signing and cannot bind later work, whatever the payment stage. |
| Payment and effectiveness | A waiver is effective on signing and needs no payment: it 'requires no consideration and is valid and binding' (§ 34.35.117(a)). There is no statutory conditional-on-payment or cleared-check mechanism, so a signed waiver can bind even if the claimant has not been paid — the main statutory protection is that it cannot reach future work and cannot bind a laborer-employee. |
| Required contents, exceptions, and through date | No statutory required fields or exception list. The one statutory reservation is automatic: work 'furnished after the date the waiver is signed' is outside any waiver (§ 34.35.117(a)); retainage, extras, and change orders are left to the waiver's own terms. |
| Rights released and reserved | A waiver reaches 'lien or stop-lending notice … rights created under AS 34.35.050 - 34.35.120' (§ 34.35.117(a)). It reserves future work by statute and cannot reach a laborer-employee's lien (§ 34.35.117(b)). It does not address a Little Miller Act payment-bond claim, which is a separate remedy. |
| Signature, authority, notary, and format | Must be a writing 'signed by the claimant'; no consideration, notarization, acknowledgment, or warning is required (§ 34.35.117(a)). The statute sets no authorized-agent, type-size, or attachment rule. |
| Noncompliance, remedies, and transition traps | A waiver purporting to reach post-signing work does not bind that later work, and a waiver of a covered laborer-employee's lien is 'void' (§ 34.35.117(a), (b)). The statute states no penalty or fee otherwise. A separate 2026 bill (HB 253) would change lien-filing time periods, not the waiver rule. |
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Requirements one by one
A signed waiver binds without payment — but only for past work
Alaska's waiver rule is one section, AS 34.35.117. Subsection (a) says a written
waiver of lien or stop-lending-notice rights, signed by the claimant, "requires
no consideration and is valid and binding." That is unusual and important: the
waiver does not need to be paid for, or supported by any other consideration, to
take effect. A claimant who signs one is bound by it even if no money has changed
hands.
The counterweight is a time limit built into the same subsection. A waiver "may
not relate to labor, materials, services, or equipment furnished after the date
the waiver is signed by the claimant." So a waiver reaches only what the claimant
had already furnished when it was signed. An advance waiver that tries to give up
lien rights for the rest of a job — future draws, later deliveries, work not yet
performed — does not reach that later work. In practice every Alaska waiver
operates as a partial waiver good through its signing date.
A laborer-employee cannot waive at all
Subsection (b) carves out one group entirely. An "individual" — defined in
AS 34.35.120(10) as a natural person who actually performs labor on the
improvement as an employee of the owner or a contractor — "may not waive" the
right to claim a lien, and "[a] waiver that purports to waive the lien rights of
that individual or class of individuals is void." A worker's own lien for wages
cannot be signed away, whether by the worker or by anyone else.
There is no statutory form
Section 34.35.117 prescribes no form. It requires only a writing signed by the
claimant. Alaska does not divide waivers into conditional and unconditional or
progress and final versions, does not mandate a warning, and lists no required
fields. A privately drafted waiver that is written and signed is effective, and
notarization is not required.
What trips people up
The "no consideration" rule cuts against a claimant. In many states a
conditional waiver is ineffective until the claimant is actually paid. Alaska has
no such statutory condition: a signed waiver is binding on its own terms even if
the promised payment never arrives. A claimant who signs a broad unconditional
waiver in exchange for a check has little statutory fallback if the check does not
clear, aside from the future-work and laborer-employee protections. Making the
waiver expressly conditional on cleared payment is a matter of drafting, not a
statutory default.
The future-work limit is a shield, not a license to be careless. It voids only
the part of a waiver that reaches work furnished after signing; everything
furnished through the signing date is fully released. Signing at the wrong time —
before a disputed item is resolved, for instance — can still surrender a real
claim, because that work was already furnished.
Common questions
Does an Alaska lien waiver have to be notarized or use a set form?
No. Section 34.35.117 requires only a writing signed by the claimant; there is no
statutory form, warning, or notarization requirement.
Can a contract waive lien rights for the whole project up front?
No. A waiver cannot relate to labor, materials, services, or equipment furnished
after it is signed, so it cannot reach future work.
Can a worker be required to waive their lien for wages?
No. A waiver of the lien rights of a laborer-employee described in
AS 34.35.120(10) is void under § 34.35.117(b).
Statutes and sources
- AS 34.35.117 (waiver of lien rights; no consideration, no future work, laborer
carve-out) —
https://www.akleg.gov/basis/statutes.asp?media=print&secStart=34.35.117&secEnd=34.35.117
(accessed 2026-07-23) - AS 34.35.120 (definitions; "individual" laborer-employee at paragraph (10)) —
https://www.akleg.gov/basis/statutes.asp?media=print&secStart=34.35.120&secEnd=34.35.120
(accessed 2026-07-23)
Source links
Every statute quoted above, linked, with the date we checked it.
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